Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Mily Sandalwood sent us following;
*Winter Dance annoucement
--------------------------
-- --
-- VOLTAI VIKTEL --
-- WINTER DANCE --
-- --
--------------------------
The city of Voltai Viktel announces a Winter dance competition.
Held for all Gorean dancers who like the challenge of performing a Gorean dance with a winter theme and showing their skills.
The city will reward the best performance with prizes;
1st place: 2.000 lindens
2nd place: 1.250 lindens
3rd place: 750 lindens
If you are interested, contact: Gunner von Phoenix (masterperry Resident)
Return the form below filled in to him in NC before January 8.
Date of the event: Februari 8th
Time of the event: 1pm slt
Read more and find the application right HERE!
*********
*Winter Dance annoucement
--------------------------
-- --
-- VOLTAI VIKTEL --
-- WINTER DANCE --
-- --
--------------------------
The city of Voltai Viktel announces a Winter dance competition.
Held for all Gorean dancers who like the challenge of performing a Gorean dance with a winter theme and showing their skills.
The city will reward the best performance with prizes;
1st place: 2.000 lindens
2nd place: 1.250 lindens
3rd place: 750 lindens
If you are interested, contact: Gunner von Phoenix (masterperry Resident)
Return the form below filled in to him in NC before January 8.
Date of the event: Februari 8th
Time of the event: 1pm slt
Read more and find the application right HERE!
*********
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
The Artiste Performance HUD
Happy Holidays to ALL and here's wishing you all a very prosperous, healthy, and happy New Year!
Yes. its another long-winded too-long blog. I still haven't learned a thing. So if you have better things to do like watching paint dry or grass grow then by all means do those things instead.
Well...
It has been a long time since I blogged. And during my absence, I have noticed a few "product" blogs about "how to do things" with some popular dance products and found them useful and pragmatic.
So I thought I would blog about the only thing I know something about well enough to blog about and that is my very own "precision performance" HUD called the Artiste HUD.
I thought I would discuss high level concepts and tool-philosophy, initially.
Any tool and/or HUD that one might wear before and/or during a live stage performance would qualify as a 'performance tool'.
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Performance Tools
Performance tools seem to be judged by:
1) What they do
2) How reliable they are
3) How easy they are to use,
4) How well they perform under lag
5) How easy they are to learn
I hope that what the Artiste does is monumental.
That is has proven to be exceptionally reliable in contrast to its peer products.
That it is relatively easy to "reuse" after an initial learning curve.
That it continues to hold up under laggy conditions as reported from testimonials,
and
That getting it to do what you want becomes easier with practice over time, with the aid of the many methods offered to learn and master its abilities.
The number of hours spent in development for specialty-huds can never find an audience big enough to come remotely close to fair compensation so these tools end up being a labor of love. The main joy for me is enabling someone to do 'more', do 'different', or do what they normally do more easily.
The initial intent was to automate routine tasks with precision timing in order to free up the solo performers stage-time such that they could interact adhoc with the audience.
Little did I know that it would find (seemingly) limited use ..primarily with those who see the HUD as a 'solution' to a an existing problem...mainly that being the problem of having to use many HUDS simultanously to put on a multi-faceted show. The HUD can easily combine the functions of many different types of HUDs into one thus saving screen space and user interaction.
Ok, I am being harsh on myself. It has also found a use that I did not foresee...that being the magic that comes from making 2 things happen at the exact same time with precision so as to make for something until now unthought of as you will see from the video examples.
Here is a link to a performance where the simulation of physics is implemented via use of precision timed AutoFX commands sent to objects at the right time to have them fall as if the result of contact. It uses 10ths of a second and also makes use of the GroupPlay command to trigger the animation of a 2nd avatar.
The Artiste HUD was/is designed primarily for the solo stage performer but does have (FULL VERSION) many nice group-performance features like GroupStrip, GroupAdorn, GroupDance, etc.
Its initial intent was to automate many of the manual procedures that required a lot of split-timing user interaction with huds, inventory, stage objects, chat windows, etc.
It has been one year in development and another year in testing and practical usage. I've also been developing classes, training books, doing one-on-one training, and stress testing under various lag conditions.
The FULL VERSION has such an extensive array of features that the sheer number was considered to, in itself, be a potential deterrent to someone thinking of giving it a serious looking into... so we decided to release it in stages. the Artiste Silver Edition, followed by either an Artiste Gold Edition, and the Artiste Platinum (FULL) Edition or maybe just go straight to the Platinum Edition.
==============
Does too much?
Some people have expressed to me the opinion that they don't want tools that do everything for them during a performance for they feel there is nothing left for them to do at showtime.
I argue that the audience doesn't know if you are using a tool or doing it yourself. All they see is the final performance. If its consistently smooth, then you will get as much credit using a tool that does most if not all of your performance magic than if you were manipulating several tools thru-out a performance. However there is much to be said for 'personal satisfaction of 'doing a lot' on-the-fly, and doing it well.It goes to personal as well, as potentially, peer recognition. Your ability to "improvise on the go" is a as much a skill as show-planning and preparation.
Some purists may argue ..its all about the 'dance'. This is blog is called Dance Queens, not Show Queens. Hard to argue. This HUD does little to advance the art of dance if that it the culmination. It just is what it is. Something for those who feel the "show" is an extension of the dance not unlike the importance of music to dance.
In fact I think, unarguably, my HUD is it near the bottom as dance HUDs go for it has the mere basics and is currently not designed to help a performer put together a choreographed routine by providing lots of dances in its inventory. No features for rearranging, or editing, nor the ability to store massive amounts of dance sequences, nor even the ability to invite other dancers. So dance-hud creators can relax. Its only modest claim to fame its its tight integration with the Artiste HUD, and thus, its acceptable performance under stress.
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Payoffs
I once blogged on what I used as indicators of wows during a performance.
Changes which I termed 'payoffs'. the more you 'pay' 'off' an audience the more 'entertained' I think they feel. Well I do anyways.
Payoffs
Locale
Time Period
Costume Change
New Cast
Clothing
Special FX
Dance Change
Emotes
Set
Set Change
Group routine
Object Change
Environment Change
Lighting Change
Tools that enable payoffs I feel go a long ways towards advancing the art-form as it pertains to dance stage-shows where there is usually a set and one or more dancers who dance for the benefit of an attentive and captive audience. Here's hoping that the Artiste will enable the the ease and encouragement of delivering more payoffs.
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Impressions
There are levels of "impressiveness" that many of us strive for, be they intentional or not.
Self
Peer
SL Audience
Non-SL Audience
Different feats we accomplish during a show can impress ourselves but not our peers and we are happy with that as personal satisfaction counts for a lot. You may have figured out how to do something that many if not most other in your peer group have already done. It feels good to you as a milestone of personal achievement.
Then there are the things you accomplish that your peers stand back and say "WOW". The feat may or may not be impressive to you, depending on level of effort and difficulty and how often you've accomplished it.
And of course your SL Audience can be impressed at something that you and/or your peers find common and easy to do. They have been around long enough to know what is possible and what might be something new they haven't seen before that they can say "WOW".
And finally the hardest group to impress is the Non-SL Audience...those coming from the real world. They don't know whats normal and easy to do versus what is an accomplished feat so only those things that are unique to SL that they haven't seen done in a movie or other art-form might leave an impression on them.
The Artiste HUD provides the ability to impress at the self, peer, and SL audience levels in new ways yet un-thought of as they are awaiting your creative input.
===============
Primary Aims
My Artiste HUD is a device whose primary aims are to
1) Free the show-performer to emote ad-hoc without worrying about the timing and triggering the other parts of their performance.
2) Enable the solo-show performer to do more with less as in less HUDS worn at show time and less "manual" intervention with devices that 'do things' at show-time.
3) Automate the process of presenting "payoffs" in a well-planned, organized, precision-timed manner.
4) Enable the show-performer to "create new effects" using the base set of fundamental "functions" or "tool sets" provided by the Artiste HUD
================
Freeing the Creative Mind
The Artiste is intended to "free the mind" to imagine doing much more than is currently feasible because currently there is a practical limit on how many buttons and devices a performer can operate, ie. a limit on the number of buttons one can press at the exact same time. There is also the issue of 'precision timing', and the ability to 'repeat' a performance with expected results that are time-sensitive. The Ninja example below requires tenth-of-a-second precision.
Because the Artiste can do many things at once, it opens up a new way to think, and that is the culmination of "simultaneous interactive functions". This relies on tool-reliability during heavy sim usage.
See this video for an example of closely timed events that make SL physics, physical interaction appear where there is really none since animations happen on the client and are unaware of the real SL world. But we can now emulate real-world reactions via mutliple simultaneous event actions: (And let me add that I never did imagine this as a use of the HUD) until I saw it performed for the 1st time)
Click on the link below to view the video clip
And yes I know of people who wear as many as 10 huds in one performance. You run out of screen space not to mention the screen space that the inventory pop-up window uses, if you are using it each required manual trigger is subject to the whims of starting or non-starting when you expect it to.
HUDS and performance tools from various creators were not designed, not optimized, to work together nor were they designed to work with precision and repeated reliability because there has not been practical need so performers sometimes suffer frustrating unpredictable and random minor delay times.
===============
Pre-Show Scheduling vs On-The-Fly decision-making
Before I continue, it is imperative that I point out that the Artiste HUD is a planning-scheduling tool and NOT a live performance tool, other than Caching Dances and pressing the PLAY button. If you are a person who thrives on doing things 'on-the-fly' during a show then
the Artiste HUD is probably not for you. There are other fine products that offer show-time functioning.
You use it to schedule WHAT will happen and WHEN by use of edited notecards. While the HUD does have "manual" operations, they are NOT intended to be used during a show as they become subject to the whims of sim-resource-demand, script time-slicing, and are likely to suffer the unpredictable reliability inherent in far-too-common laggy show conditions
The manual functions are meant to help in the "pre-show" creative process to help speed-up the fine-tuning process by not having to always rely on the relatively slower note-card editing process in order to make changes. You can do most but not all of the abilities provided by notecards. Whether you feel it is easier to use the menu or not will be a personal decision.
=========
Precision
Because the HUD noticeably recognizes timings down to tenths-of-a-second, it is recommended that you enable time-stamps so you can verify when things are happening as the HUD gives readouts and feedback as to when it is doing what you asked it to do. We spent 100s of hours trying to perfect the timing and so it should be within 1 second accuracy limited by rounding errors.
In Firestorm: Avatar-->Preferences-->Privacy-->General--> Show seconds in chat and log timestamps
=========
Events
The Artiste HUDs core engine is "event based". Everything that happens when in "auto/automated" mode is based on user-defined events defined on a notecard called *events
Events are arbitrary points in time relative to the HUD's "play" button being pressed.
You define events, what happens during the events using notecards, then you press PLAY and the HUD performs your functions at the right time.
The Artiste HUD is copy/mod so you can save "shows" with outfits and have different huds for different routines saved up as well as making backups.
Event thinking is a different paradigm because events are defined 1st and then you define what is to happen relative to them as in...right on the event, prior to the event, or subsequent to an event.
You define from 1 to 10 events which are offset (elapsed times) that you choose as to what happens and when things can happen.
=========
What is an event?
Its a noticeable action or change. Examples: Curtain rising, song-section change (i.e. verse-to-chorus) pronounced rhythmic attack during a song, song-solo, a clock striking midnight, a car arriving, helicopter landing, door-closing, new dancers appearing, removal of clothing. Environment change (i.e. adorning an umbrella upon rain falling)
Events can and are often arbitrary points in time relative to "play". You could say that you wanted something* to happen every 60 seconds. If your song is 5 minutes long then you could conceivably have 4 or 5 events.
Now you can tell the HUD you want to start dancing on event 1, strip on events 2 and 4, emote on 1,2, and 3, and adorn (wear a prop) on event 5
as an example.
People always end up telling me that they worry about running out of events. Well because there are offsets, this saves you events. Example if you wanted to emote prior to stripping, you use a lead-time which says that event uses an existing event and offsets based on it. This saves
you creating new events.
Also in the FULL-VERSION of the HUD, there is an event zero (0) and 11 for things you ALWAYS do prior to and following a show So thats 12 events.
Also with the FULL-VERSION you can do multiple things (AutoFX - one of 9 major functions) on one event limited only by the length of anotecard line, 255 chars.
And if that's not enough, with the FULL-VERSION you have HUD-CHAINING, which is imperceptibly fast. The HUD can load and emulate the pressing of "play" on a 2nd Artiste HUD so you now have 10 (or 12) more events for a total of 20 to 24...And the 2nd HUD can call a 3rd HUD, and so on.
But its smart to try to optimize event usage for simplification. No one has yet needed more than 12 events.
You have a choice of specifying event durations instead of elapsed times.
=================
For you?
So if you think you can adjust how you think about your show in terms of events, then you;ve a good change of adapting to how the Artiste thinks and works.
An sample event entry looks like this on a notecard. The event number, name, and duration or elapsed time. Pretty simple.
1,"Intro",25.6
==========
There are a myriad of capabilities in the FULL VERSION but so as not to overwhelm, I was
persuaded to issue a toned down version which we call the Basic Silver Edition.
It enables the performer to do 4 main functions:
1) Strip - remove clothing layers and/or attachments
2) Adorn - wear(add) clothing layers and/or attachments
3) Sequence - dance a sequence of animations
4) Emote - emit emotes in public chat or private IM.
The idea is to get you acquainted with basic HUD usage without clouding the issue with too
many functions, HUD menus and buttons, documentation, books, terms, explanatory verbiage, etc.
=========
Full Version
I don't know when we will release the FULL VERSION or whether we will release a GOLD edition prior to the Platinum (FULL) version. It depends on user feedback and how well this release goes.
The FULL VERSION is already being used and has been for months. This Silver Edition has a couple of nice new features that are not in the FULL VERSION, which I will add to the FULL VERSION very soon. That wont take long. Then we will prepare and decide on a tentative release window.
90 to 95% of what people use the FULL VERSION for currently can be accomplished using the BASIC version In other words they are not using many of the advanced features, (with the exception of external-device-control) which advanced options encompasses maybe 75 % of the HUD's capabilities. So maybe only 25% of its abilities are being utilized.
====
2014
It will be my mission for 2014 to help people use more of the HUD's advanced capabilities with pre-configured examples and how-to's, videos, and other training methodologies and to focus on improving training methods documentation and, as well integrating it with a few home-grown products, creating a couple new tightly-integrated add-ons, and lastly to use and enjoy the HUD myself.
There is a learning curve and if you are the type of person who has little time for learning and expects to learn it and use it in an hour because your priorities are first and foremost, preparing for your next show, then the Artiste is probably not for you, as past experience has shown.
Those who've adapted best have chosen it as their central controlling device as opposed to an adjunct to what they are already using and committing as much time is needed to mastering its basic abilities.
It is good for troupe-leaders, experimenters, creative-types, those able to edit notecards fearlessly, pioneers, and the "serious performer" as one accomplished Artiste HUD user phrased it. Perhaps not for the technically challenged unless you have perspicacity.
If you use a lot of HUDS, the Artiste seems to help relieve you of many if not all of them so as to make things easier. If you are looking to advance in show-capabilities then the Artiste may be a good choice. If you are at all the least bit hesitant then I suggest you wait and give it more thought, investigate, ask questions, wait for a friend to adapt it, etc.
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Cool Things
If you are wanting the HUD to do some "cool new thing you thought about", then its not for you. The HUD is meant for YOU to come up with and OWN creative ways to use it and thus you benefit from your creations as well as the community.
Not wishing to sound harsh, but, coming from experience, it is not for me to solve a creative problem you have and figure out ways for you to do something 'uniquely cool'. Our time is best spent showing you what it can do and present tips and tricks that emanate from us that we find have broad appeal to the majority of users as opposed to focusing on niche usage single-purpose adaptations.
=======
Training
We will be offering one-on-one training to purchasers and holding classes in the near future. There are also several Intellibooks that come with the Artiste with step-by-step how-to illustrations.
The Artiste HUD Silver Edition is currently only available via direct purchase from me.
===========
Requirement
One important NOTE: The HUD requires you to have RLV enabled on your viewer. It is safe.
No RLV relay is required. Yes i know you it is not required to dance and emote but i wanted to avoid confusion of people advancing to other HUD abilities and them not working because RLV was not enabled.
===========
Purchase
Lat Lovenkraft (Yummy, Yumz)
The Artiste HUD Silver Edition (Basic). $ 2,000 L
Available Dec. 26th, 2013
So feel free to contact me personally for purchase or...if you have general questions.
==============
Testimonials
I am proud to list 2 unedited real testimonials so you can gauge what you might expect to experience on your own personal journey.
If I did not have this positive feedback based on track records, I doubt if I would be releasing it to the public and might just have left it on the shelf as I am self-conscious about reliability and "walking my talk". As it was it took a lot of cajoling and pressuring for me to finally release it to the general public as I always found an excuse. One more feature to add, more testing, better documentation, etc. Finally i gave in and promised the people who begged me to release prior to year-end 2013. I wanted to make good on that promise.
Your personal experience may vary depending on how you adapt to it.
===========
Testimonial #1
The following is my experience with the Artiste Performer HUD:
I want to start off this testimonial with a little background on myself. I'm the owner of MJ's Burlesque Review, and known for having very exacting standards. I do not endorse things for friends, money or even death threats, so this is a first. I'm very honest and will give a truthful review of my experience with the Artiste.
I was given the Artiste almost a year ago to try out, during that time I reported any issues, and not only shared my feelings but made suggestions on things that may help improve the hud.
At my club there is no huge support crew, just performers so I do many things myself, like running the stream. Some acts I would have as many as four or five huds running at any given time, so the Artiste really got me excited. At the most now I use two, on very rare occasions three.
I'll not lie, the learning curve was difficult at first, but after say two shows I was getting on fairly well. This was an entirely different way of doing things, unlike any of the other dance huds I had used in the past.
One of the many lovely things about this hud is that it talks to other scripts seamlessly, at least it has for me thus far. I have also noticed that I don't have the lag issues I had with some of the other huds.
Costume changes are a breeze and the menus are so easy to navigate. I have reached a point where I would have (a) tantrum if I had to go back to the standard huds, i'll sum it up like this. When I first started performing, this is what I had expected the dance huds to be like.
MJ, of MJ's Burlesque Review
===========
Testimonial #2
A Beginning
When I first came to SL nearly 2 years ago, I was very excited to find that there was a crop of burlesque clubs in existence. Having a huge love of theatre and dance I determined to become a dancer and set out exploring. I was so determined I even managed to get a job as a dancer in a popular club before I was 3 months old. I was quickly disillusioned though, realising that "burlesque" in SL was usually a "posh" term for stripping, often without any finesse and even stage work was limited because modes of animation were so limited that most actions had to be emoted or described and left to the viewers imagination. I was resigned to having to "make do" and be as creative as I could with costumes and features such as fans.
The Breakthrough
A few months later I chanced upon a demonstration of a nifty HUD called the Dance Diva. It could co-ordinate dancers, move them around the stage, change directions and reposition them in formations. I watched in awe as the three dancers moved in a way I had never seen possible before. That was the first time I met Yummy and Jemma and they were kind enough to spend time talking with me afterwards and we discovered that we had a lot of common frustrations with the limitations of tools in SL.. We talked more over the coming weeks and I was so excited to learn that Yummy was working on yet another device, one that would bring everything together.
When she asked if I would be interested in helping her to test it I jumped at the chance. Nearly every day we would get together and spend about 3 hours running tests, talking about ideas and me doing my best to try and break the HUD. In the months that followed I learned a huge amount from Yummy, not least the painstaking work that goes into developing a product like this, which is no picnic. I would leave our sessions feeling like my head was going to explode because I had taken so much in. one thing was readily apparent... what she was working on was an incredibly powerful tool and had immense potential. Not only that, it was growing in complexity the more we worked on it.
A Perspective
Throughout the lifetime of the project I think Yummy and I have both kept in mind that potential, not just for cabaret performances but for dancers in all fields and also other performers where producing a dynamic performance is crucial to keep interest. Most action in SL has been limited to a kind of 2 dimensional output where there was not much interaction between the performer and the stage or the audience. Now there was the possibility to make things appear and vanish smoothly, have the stage set come to life and be a performer in its own right. The solo performance was now a duet. There were many things already in existence in SL that could enhance a routine, but they were not always easy to utilise unless you had 4 HUDs and several other windows or animations open on your screen. It became very clear that being able to reduce that effort and enable the performer to do all their hard work before the act itself was the way to greatness. Everything could be planned and laid out before hand, routines could be rehearsed over and over without massive set up, tweaks could be made without having to adjust over several HUDS.
I started using the Artiste for performances at Orchids in 2012. As nervous as I was about performing again, the one thing I knew I didn't have to worry about was the HUD itself. I could prepare as much as I wanted beforehand and once that button was pressed I would get everything as I wanted. We all know that things are rarely perfect in SL, but this was as near as I had ever seen. Even when we hit high lag and other people were kicking their equipment, I was amazed that I pushed the button and away it went. This became even more apparent with Yummy included the dance sequencer and Iw as no longer reliant on running a dance HUD alongside. I used it week after week, twice every Sunday for nearly a year. The only hiccup I had with it once in all that time was actually my fault because I didn't reset it after a bad crash. I made spotlights appear, pulled fans out of thin air, turned Marylin into Nicole Kidman! Then in early 2013 Yummy made my jaw drop when we worked on an idea for a group routine. The Artiste made 5 dancers strip in unison and adorn fans during a performance of "Lady Marmalade". We then put together a demonstration package in which everything was automated, from opening the curtains and logging into the tip jar through to making overhead announcements - just one press of a button! It was something that I couldn't have imagined happening when I first started working with her, but I am starting to think that anything is possible. All of this is just the start.
Utility
Just as the ideas that have gone into the Artiste have taken their time, nothing comes without work. I have worked with the Artiste day in day out and I am still learning what it can do. As much as it is powerful it has a lot of complexity, but like a lot of complex learning, it has its foundation in solid basics and common sense. The Silver Edition Artiste, which will be released first, is a hugely important tool in its own right. It is also a great foundation for advanced learning because everything follows the same principles. The key is in learning how best to use what you have and then building upon it in easy steps. There will be support provided for people in manuals and training sessions but anyone who has used a notecard driven dance HUD will have no difficulty learning to use the Artiste. All learning can be frustrating at times but every time you get an idea to work with the HUD it is incredibly empowering. Its not just the result but the fact that you have mastered something new.
Looking forward
I have believed in this project from day one. I have never lost faith in it for one second. The work that Yummy has done is astounding and it has been such a privilege to work with her..and to have her friendship. The real power of the Artiste will be the imaginations of the people who use it and I so look forward to seeing the results. This rejuvenated my experience of SL and opened up a whole world of possibilities and I am sure it will do the same for many others. Roll on 2014, the future is coming :)
Aura Fitzgerald
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And speaking of Aura, here is a recent Artiste HUD production by Aura using the maximum 10 events, 10 adorns, 10 emotes, 10 strips, and 1 sequence. It took her 2 days to perfect this closely timed routine. Click on the link below to view the video clip
The Artiste - A Kind of Magic
Event 1 Spotlight Orb is adorned, Gloves are taken off "Strips off her gloves as she dances and fans them in her hand "Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen!"
Event 2 Prim gloves adorned to hand , prim gloves removed "With a sly grin and a flick of the wrist she turns the gloves into a fan of cards"
Event 3 Cards adorned, hat removed from head "Taking off her hat she waves it to the audience to show it is empty "Watch closely" "
Event 4 Hat adorned to hand, cards removed "As she blows on the cards they vanish into the hat in a poof of stars "Howzat?" "
Event 5 Poofer adorned for effect, poofer removed ""I do hope you are all having a good time!" Plopping the hat back on her head and making her cane appear "
Event 6 hat moved to head, Jacket removed " "Hmm It's a little warm in here!" With a snap of her fingers she makes her jacket vanish .."
Event 7 cane adorned, cane removed ",As she dances she winks at the audience and suddenly the cane becomes a magic wand!"
Event 8 Wand adorned, skirt removed ""Don't you love magic?" With a flourish of the wand her skirt evaporates and she laughs"
Event 9 hat moved to hand, hat removed ""I do hope you have enjoyed my little performance" Tipping her hat again to the audience"
Event 10 Final red effect adorned, shirt and pants removed ""Aaaaaaaand for my last trick..." A wave of the wand and ...."Remember, There can only be one ARTISTE!" :D"
**the actions you see do not necessarily follow the events as are they are listed here due to some retro-timing of adorns
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Artiste Features List
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BASIC SILVER EDITION*
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1) Auto-Stripping
2) Auto-Adorning
3) Auto-Emoting
4) Auto-Sequencing
5) Pose
6) Dance
7) HUD Minimize
8) Dance Caching
9) Manual: Sequence Start/Stop
10) Final Pose
11) Manual Adorn
12) Intellibooks, classes, one-on-ones, blog
13) Direction-Facing, Absolute
14) Ability to remove just 1 of several layers or attachments on a body part
15) No inventory window required to be open for doing costume stripping
16) Manual Item removal and Group-Item (i.e. shoes) removal
**********************************************************
ADVANCED EDITIONS (GOLD and/or PLATINUM)
**********************************************************
17) Auto-Announcing
18) Auto-FX - Full
19) Auto-Rez
20) Auto-Pose
21) Auto-Follower
22) Free Master Set Rezzer includes manual, with copyable scripts
23) Manual as well as HUD-controllable (using AutoFX) custom SetRezzer with up to 5 set successive auto-crossfades (forward and/or reverse) along with simultaneous set-rez (not available in standard rezzers),: DoubleExposure,Show,Hide,AutoKill,Single SetSelectable, FadeIn, FadeOut,Advance,Retard, ComeHome
24) TestRez - ability to experiment with the rezzables function without notecard configuration.
25) External Device Control thru custom channel
26) HUD-Chaining for when you need additional events (more than 12)
27) SmartChange - Micro-Controlled outfit-change ordering
28) Communicates to DanceDiva - Group Formation HUD
29) Communicates to our custom Stage HUD - isolating stage control to the one logged in performer or group-lead
30) Communicates to our custom Stage Director - screens group controlling via Stage HUD or direct
31) Communicates to our designated lights, custom tip-jar script, custom curtain script
32) Group Adorn - Coordinated outfit additions
33) Controls and plays Sounds from inside Director
34) Can start and stop media
35) Costume Exclusions
36) Costume Anchors
37) Rez-scripts copy/xfer allowing you to create custom rez-objects
38) Includes several free scripted rezzables: Silhoutte Ball, Spotlight, Silly Ball, Long Box, Cylinder, Phone Booth, Changing Screen, Orb Glow
39) Customizable FX-Masked Costume Changing
40) Can avoid most (but not all) notecard configuring by using the HUD menu system..
41) Built-in Avatar Invisibility
42) Special Event Zero and event #11 for things you always do before and after a routine with pre-lead-times and post-delay times
43) Ability to strip without creating RLV folder (but does require RLV enabling)
44) Multiple AutoFXs per event allowed
45) Many functions have configurable lead, hold/on, and delay time offsets
46) Send separate dance sequences to 3 definable dance groups (A,B and both)
47) Use NickName for emotes,
48) Send Emotes to Relay device on special channel (for extending chat beyond 100 meters)
49) Direct Emotes to local chat or IM
50 ) Group Stripping via a negative Adorn
51) Send commands region-wide
52) Auto-Teleport, Auto-Rebake, Auto-Tattoo Layering as part of SmartChange
53) Chooseable auto-animations for start and end of costume-change
54) Auto-Rezzer can, via the rez-instructions embed intelligence into rezzed objects, do the following automatically to a rezzed object, tied to an event: with available offsetting via the Wait.
Rez,
Move,
Slow Turn,
Position,
Drop,
Set Glow,
Opacity,
AutoFadeIn,
AutoFadeOut,
AutoRaise,
AutoLower,
Direction,
Color,
Animate,
ForceSit,
Distance,
Spin,
Wait,
Kill
55) Effects Spin
50) Effects Coloring
51) Selectable FX-Costume Masking time
52) HUD controllable via external Chat
53) HUD is Copy/Mod - save pre-configured with your (initial) show outfit
54) HUD-2-HUD transfer script Included for easily transferring items between 2 HUDs (good for version upgrades)
55) GroupPlay, GroupStop, GroupStrip
56) Controls an advanced version of the Opera Glasses and triggers viewing angles at event times
57) and more...i just cant think of them all at the moment
Yes. its another long-winded too-long blog. I still haven't learned a thing. So if you have better things to do like watching paint dry or grass grow then by all means do those things instead.
Well...
It has been a long time since I blogged. And during my absence, I have noticed a few "product" blogs about "how to do things" with some popular dance products and found them useful and pragmatic.
So I thought I would blog about the only thing I know something about well enough to blog about and that is my very own "precision performance" HUD called the Artiste HUD.
I thought I would discuss high level concepts and tool-philosophy, initially.
Any tool and/or HUD that one might wear before and/or during a live stage performance would qualify as a 'performance tool'.
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Performance Tools
Performance tools seem to be judged by:
1) What they do
2) How reliable they are
3) How easy they are to use,
4) How well they perform under lag
5) How easy they are to learn
I hope that what the Artiste does is monumental.
That is has proven to be exceptionally reliable in contrast to its peer products.
That it is relatively easy to "reuse" after an initial learning curve.
That it continues to hold up under laggy conditions as reported from testimonials,
and
That getting it to do what you want becomes easier with practice over time, with the aid of the many methods offered to learn and master its abilities.
The number of hours spent in development for specialty-huds can never find an audience big enough to come remotely close to fair compensation so these tools end up being a labor of love. The main joy for me is enabling someone to do 'more', do 'different', or do what they normally do more easily.
The initial intent was to automate routine tasks with precision timing in order to free up the solo performers stage-time such that they could interact adhoc with the audience.
Little did I know that it would find (seemingly) limited use ..primarily with those who see the HUD as a 'solution' to a an existing problem...mainly that being the problem of having to use many HUDS simultanously to put on a multi-faceted show. The HUD can easily combine the functions of many different types of HUDs into one thus saving screen space and user interaction.
Ok, I am being harsh on myself. It has also found a use that I did not foresee...that being the magic that comes from making 2 things happen at the exact same time with precision so as to make for something until now unthought of as you will see from the video examples.
Here is a link to a performance where the simulation of physics is implemented via use of precision timed AutoFX commands sent to objects at the right time to have them fall as if the result of contact. It uses 10ths of a second and also makes use of the GroupPlay command to trigger the animation of a 2nd avatar.
The Artiste HUD was/is designed primarily for the solo stage performer but does have (FULL VERSION) many nice group-performance features like GroupStrip, GroupAdorn, GroupDance, etc.
Its initial intent was to automate many of the manual procedures that required a lot of split-timing user interaction with huds, inventory, stage objects, chat windows, etc.
It has been one year in development and another year in testing and practical usage. I've also been developing classes, training books, doing one-on-one training, and stress testing under various lag conditions.
The FULL VERSION has such an extensive array of features that the sheer number was considered to, in itself, be a potential deterrent to someone thinking of giving it a serious looking into... so we decided to release it in stages. the Artiste Silver Edition, followed by either an Artiste Gold Edition, and the Artiste Platinum (FULL) Edition or maybe just go straight to the Platinum Edition.
==============
Does too much?
Some people have expressed to me the opinion that they don't want tools that do everything for them during a performance for they feel there is nothing left for them to do at showtime.
I argue that the audience doesn't know if you are using a tool or doing it yourself. All they see is the final performance. If its consistently smooth, then you will get as much credit using a tool that does most if not all of your performance magic than if you were manipulating several tools thru-out a performance. However there is much to be said for 'personal satisfaction of 'doing a lot' on-the-fly, and doing it well.It goes to personal as well, as potentially, peer recognition. Your ability to "improvise on the go" is a as much a skill as show-planning and preparation.
Some purists may argue ..its all about the 'dance'. This is blog is called Dance Queens, not Show Queens. Hard to argue. This HUD does little to advance the art of dance if that it the culmination. It just is what it is. Something for those who feel the "show" is an extension of the dance not unlike the importance of music to dance.
In fact I think, unarguably, my HUD is it near the bottom as dance HUDs go for it has the mere basics and is currently not designed to help a performer put together a choreographed routine by providing lots of dances in its inventory. No features for rearranging, or editing, nor the ability to store massive amounts of dance sequences, nor even the ability to invite other dancers. So dance-hud creators can relax. Its only modest claim to fame its its tight integration with the Artiste HUD, and thus, its acceptable performance under stress.
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Payoffs
I once blogged on what I used as indicators of wows during a performance.
Changes which I termed 'payoffs'. the more you 'pay' 'off' an audience the more 'entertained' I think they feel. Well I do anyways.
Payoffs
Locale
Time Period
Costume Change
New Cast
Clothing
Special FX
Dance Change
Emotes
Set
Set Change
Group routine
Object Change
Environment Change
Lighting Change
Tools that enable payoffs I feel go a long ways towards advancing the art-form as it pertains to dance stage-shows where there is usually a set and one or more dancers who dance for the benefit of an attentive and captive audience. Here's hoping that the Artiste will enable the the ease and encouragement of delivering more payoffs.
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Impressions
There are levels of "impressiveness" that many of us strive for, be they intentional or not.
Self
Peer
SL Audience
Non-SL Audience
Different feats we accomplish during a show can impress ourselves but not our peers and we are happy with that as personal satisfaction counts for a lot. You may have figured out how to do something that many if not most other in your peer group have already done. It feels good to you as a milestone of personal achievement.
Then there are the things you accomplish that your peers stand back and say "WOW". The feat may or may not be impressive to you, depending on level of effort and difficulty and how often you've accomplished it.
And of course your SL Audience can be impressed at something that you and/or your peers find common and easy to do. They have been around long enough to know what is possible and what might be something new they haven't seen before that they can say "WOW".
And finally the hardest group to impress is the Non-SL Audience...those coming from the real world. They don't know whats normal and easy to do versus what is an accomplished feat so only those things that are unique to SL that they haven't seen done in a movie or other art-form might leave an impression on them.
The Artiste HUD provides the ability to impress at the self, peer, and SL audience levels in new ways yet un-thought of as they are awaiting your creative input.
===============
Primary Aims
My Artiste HUD is a device whose primary aims are to
1) Free the show-performer to emote ad-hoc without worrying about the timing and triggering the other parts of their performance.
2) Enable the solo-show performer to do more with less as in less HUDS worn at show time and less "manual" intervention with devices that 'do things' at show-time.
3) Automate the process of presenting "payoffs" in a well-planned, organized, precision-timed manner.
4) Enable the show-performer to "create new effects" using the base set of fundamental "functions" or "tool sets" provided by the Artiste HUD
================
Freeing the Creative Mind
The Artiste is intended to "free the mind" to imagine doing much more than is currently feasible because currently there is a practical limit on how many buttons and devices a performer can operate, ie. a limit on the number of buttons one can press at the exact same time. There is also the issue of 'precision timing', and the ability to 'repeat' a performance with expected results that are time-sensitive. The Ninja example below requires tenth-of-a-second precision.
Because the Artiste can do many things at once, it opens up a new way to think, and that is the culmination of "simultaneous interactive functions". This relies on tool-reliability during heavy sim usage.
See this video for an example of closely timed events that make SL physics, physical interaction appear where there is really none since animations happen on the client and are unaware of the real SL world. But we can now emulate real-world reactions via mutliple simultaneous event actions: (And let me add that I never did imagine this as a use of the HUD) until I saw it performed for the 1st time)
Click on the link below to view the video clip
I'm a Ninja
And yes I know of people who wear as many as 10 huds in one performance. You run out of screen space not to mention the screen space that the inventory pop-up window uses, if you are using it each required manual trigger is subject to the whims of starting or non-starting when you expect it to.
HUDS and performance tools from various creators were not designed, not optimized, to work together nor were they designed to work with precision and repeated reliability because there has not been practical need so performers sometimes suffer frustrating unpredictable and random minor delay times.
===============
Pre-Show Scheduling vs On-The-Fly decision-making
Before I continue, it is imperative that I point out that the Artiste HUD is a planning-scheduling tool and NOT a live performance tool, other than Caching Dances and pressing the PLAY button. If you are a person who thrives on doing things 'on-the-fly' during a show then
the Artiste HUD is probably not for you. There are other fine products that offer show-time functioning.
You use it to schedule WHAT will happen and WHEN by use of edited notecards. While the HUD does have "manual" operations, they are NOT intended to be used during a show as they become subject to the whims of sim-resource-demand, script time-slicing, and are likely to suffer the unpredictable reliability inherent in far-too-common laggy show conditions
The manual functions are meant to help in the "pre-show" creative process to help speed-up the fine-tuning process by not having to always rely on the relatively slower note-card editing process in order to make changes. You can do most but not all of the abilities provided by notecards. Whether you feel it is easier to use the menu or not will be a personal decision.
=========
Precision
Because the HUD noticeably recognizes timings down to tenths-of-a-second, it is recommended that you enable time-stamps so you can verify when things are happening as the HUD gives readouts and feedback as to when it is doing what you asked it to do. We spent 100s of hours trying to perfect the timing and so it should be within 1 second accuracy limited by rounding errors.
In Firestorm: Avatar-->Preferences-->Privacy-->General--> Show seconds in chat and log timestamps
=========
Events
The Artiste HUDs core engine is "event based". Everything that happens when in "auto/automated" mode is based on user-defined events defined on a notecard called *events
Events are arbitrary points in time relative to the HUD's "play" button being pressed.
You define events, what happens during the events using notecards, then you press PLAY and the HUD performs your functions at the right time.
The Artiste HUD is copy/mod so you can save "shows" with outfits and have different huds for different routines saved up as well as making backups.
Event thinking is a different paradigm because events are defined 1st and then you define what is to happen relative to them as in...right on the event, prior to the event, or subsequent to an event.
You define from 1 to 10 events which are offset (elapsed times) that you choose as to what happens and when things can happen.
=========
What is an event?
Its a noticeable action or change. Examples: Curtain rising, song-section change (i.e. verse-to-chorus) pronounced rhythmic attack during a song, song-solo, a clock striking midnight, a car arriving, helicopter landing, door-closing, new dancers appearing, removal of clothing. Environment change (i.e. adorning an umbrella upon rain falling)
Events can and are often arbitrary points in time relative to "play". You could say that you wanted something* to happen every 60 seconds. If your song is 5 minutes long then you could conceivably have 4 or 5 events.
Now you can tell the HUD you want to start dancing on event 1, strip on events 2 and 4, emote on 1,2, and 3, and adorn (wear a prop) on event 5
as an example.
People always end up telling me that they worry about running out of events. Well because there are offsets, this saves you events. Example if you wanted to emote prior to stripping, you use a lead-time which says that event uses an existing event and offsets based on it. This saves
you creating new events.
Also in the FULL-VERSION of the HUD, there is an event zero (0) and 11 for things you ALWAYS do prior to and following a show So thats 12 events.
Also with the FULL-VERSION you can do multiple things (AutoFX - one of 9 major functions) on one event limited only by the length of anotecard line, 255 chars.
And if that's not enough, with the FULL-VERSION you have HUD-CHAINING, which is imperceptibly fast. The HUD can load and emulate the pressing of "play" on a 2nd Artiste HUD so you now have 10 (or 12) more events for a total of 20 to 24...And the 2nd HUD can call a 3rd HUD, and so on.
But its smart to try to optimize event usage for simplification. No one has yet needed more than 12 events.
You have a choice of specifying event durations instead of elapsed times.
=================
For you?
So if you think you can adjust how you think about your show in terms of events, then you;ve a good change of adapting to how the Artiste thinks and works.
An sample event entry looks like this on a notecard. The event number, name, and duration or elapsed time. Pretty simple.
1,"Intro",25.6
==========
There are a myriad of capabilities in the FULL VERSION but so as not to overwhelm, I was
persuaded to issue a toned down version which we call the Basic Silver Edition.
It enables the performer to do 4 main functions:
1) Strip - remove clothing layers and/or attachments
2) Adorn - wear(add) clothing layers and/or attachments
3) Sequence - dance a sequence of animations
4) Emote - emit emotes in public chat or private IM.
The idea is to get you acquainted with basic HUD usage without clouding the issue with too
many functions, HUD menus and buttons, documentation, books, terms, explanatory verbiage, etc.
=========
Full Version
I don't know when we will release the FULL VERSION or whether we will release a GOLD edition prior to the Platinum (FULL) version. It depends on user feedback and how well this release goes.
The FULL VERSION is already being used and has been for months. This Silver Edition has a couple of nice new features that are not in the FULL VERSION, which I will add to the FULL VERSION very soon. That wont take long. Then we will prepare and decide on a tentative release window.
90 to 95% of what people use the FULL VERSION for currently can be accomplished using the BASIC version In other words they are not using many of the advanced features, (with the exception of external-device-control) which advanced options encompasses maybe 75 % of the HUD's capabilities. So maybe only 25% of its abilities are being utilized.
====
2014
It will be my mission for 2014 to help people use more of the HUD's advanced capabilities with pre-configured examples and how-to's, videos, and other training methodologies and to focus on improving training methods documentation and, as well integrating it with a few home-grown products, creating a couple new tightly-integrated add-ons, and lastly to use and enjoy the HUD myself.
There is a learning curve and if you are the type of person who has little time for learning and expects to learn it and use it in an hour because your priorities are first and foremost, preparing for your next show, then the Artiste is probably not for you, as past experience has shown.
Those who've adapted best have chosen it as their central controlling device as opposed to an adjunct to what they are already using and committing as much time is needed to mastering its basic abilities.
It is good for troupe-leaders, experimenters, creative-types, those able to edit notecards fearlessly, pioneers, and the "serious performer" as one accomplished Artiste HUD user phrased it. Perhaps not for the technically challenged unless you have perspicacity.
If you use a lot of HUDS, the Artiste seems to help relieve you of many if not all of them so as to make things easier. If you are looking to advance in show-capabilities then the Artiste may be a good choice. If you are at all the least bit hesitant then I suggest you wait and give it more thought, investigate, ask questions, wait for a friend to adapt it, etc.
=========
Cool Things
If you are wanting the HUD to do some "cool new thing you thought about", then its not for you. The HUD is meant for YOU to come up with and OWN creative ways to use it and thus you benefit from your creations as well as the community.
Not wishing to sound harsh, but, coming from experience, it is not for me to solve a creative problem you have and figure out ways for you to do something 'uniquely cool'. Our time is best spent showing you what it can do and present tips and tricks that emanate from us that we find have broad appeal to the majority of users as opposed to focusing on niche usage single-purpose adaptations.
=======
Training
We will be offering one-on-one training to purchasers and holding classes in the near future. There are also several Intellibooks that come with the Artiste with step-by-step how-to illustrations.
The Artiste HUD Silver Edition is currently only available via direct purchase from me.
===========
Requirement
One important NOTE: The HUD requires you to have RLV enabled on your viewer. It is safe.
No RLV relay is required. Yes i know you it is not required to dance and emote but i wanted to avoid confusion of people advancing to other HUD abilities and them not working because RLV was not enabled.
===========
Purchase
Lat Lovenkraft (Yummy, Yumz)
The Artiste HUD Silver Edition (Basic). $ 2,000 L
Available Dec. 26th, 2013
So feel free to contact me personally for purchase or...if you have general questions.
==============
Testimonials
I am proud to list 2 unedited real testimonials so you can gauge what you might expect to experience on your own personal journey.
If I did not have this positive feedback based on track records, I doubt if I would be releasing it to the public and might just have left it on the shelf as I am self-conscious about reliability and "walking my talk". As it was it took a lot of cajoling and pressuring for me to finally release it to the general public as I always found an excuse. One more feature to add, more testing, better documentation, etc. Finally i gave in and promised the people who begged me to release prior to year-end 2013. I wanted to make good on that promise.
Your personal experience may vary depending on how you adapt to it.
===========
Testimonial #1
The following is my experience with the Artiste Performer HUD:
I want to start off this testimonial with a little background on myself. I'm the owner of MJ's Burlesque Review, and known for having very exacting standards. I do not endorse things for friends, money or even death threats, so this is a first. I'm very honest and will give a truthful review of my experience with the Artiste.
I was given the Artiste almost a year ago to try out, during that time I reported any issues, and not only shared my feelings but made suggestions on things that may help improve the hud.
At my club there is no huge support crew, just performers so I do many things myself, like running the stream. Some acts I would have as many as four or five huds running at any given time, so the Artiste really got me excited. At the most now I use two, on very rare occasions three.
I'll not lie, the learning curve was difficult at first, but after say two shows I was getting on fairly well. This was an entirely different way of doing things, unlike any of the other dance huds I had used in the past.
One of the many lovely things about this hud is that it talks to other scripts seamlessly, at least it has for me thus far. I have also noticed that I don't have the lag issues I had with some of the other huds.
Costume changes are a breeze and the menus are so easy to navigate. I have reached a point where I would have (a) tantrum if I had to go back to the standard huds, i'll sum it up like this. When I first started performing, this is what I had expected the dance huds to be like.
MJ, of MJ's Burlesque Review
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Testimonial #2
A Beginning
When I first came to SL nearly 2 years ago, I was very excited to find that there was a crop of burlesque clubs in existence. Having a huge love of theatre and dance I determined to become a dancer and set out exploring. I was so determined I even managed to get a job as a dancer in a popular club before I was 3 months old. I was quickly disillusioned though, realising that "burlesque" in SL was usually a "posh" term for stripping, often without any finesse and even stage work was limited because modes of animation were so limited that most actions had to be emoted or described and left to the viewers imagination. I was resigned to having to "make do" and be as creative as I could with costumes and features such as fans.
The Breakthrough
A few months later I chanced upon a demonstration of a nifty HUD called the Dance Diva. It could co-ordinate dancers, move them around the stage, change directions and reposition them in formations. I watched in awe as the three dancers moved in a way I had never seen possible before. That was the first time I met Yummy and Jemma and they were kind enough to spend time talking with me afterwards and we discovered that we had a lot of common frustrations with the limitations of tools in SL.. We talked more over the coming weeks and I was so excited to learn that Yummy was working on yet another device, one that would bring everything together.
When she asked if I would be interested in helping her to test it I jumped at the chance. Nearly every day we would get together and spend about 3 hours running tests, talking about ideas and me doing my best to try and break the HUD. In the months that followed I learned a huge amount from Yummy, not least the painstaking work that goes into developing a product like this, which is no picnic. I would leave our sessions feeling like my head was going to explode because I had taken so much in. one thing was readily apparent... what she was working on was an incredibly powerful tool and had immense potential. Not only that, it was growing in complexity the more we worked on it.
A Perspective
Throughout the lifetime of the project I think Yummy and I have both kept in mind that potential, not just for cabaret performances but for dancers in all fields and also other performers where producing a dynamic performance is crucial to keep interest. Most action in SL has been limited to a kind of 2 dimensional output where there was not much interaction between the performer and the stage or the audience. Now there was the possibility to make things appear and vanish smoothly, have the stage set come to life and be a performer in its own right. The solo performance was now a duet. There were many things already in existence in SL that could enhance a routine, but they were not always easy to utilise unless you had 4 HUDs and several other windows or animations open on your screen. It became very clear that being able to reduce that effort and enable the performer to do all their hard work before the act itself was the way to greatness. Everything could be planned and laid out before hand, routines could be rehearsed over and over without massive set up, tweaks could be made without having to adjust over several HUDS.
I started using the Artiste for performances at Orchids in 2012. As nervous as I was about performing again, the one thing I knew I didn't have to worry about was the HUD itself. I could prepare as much as I wanted beforehand and once that button was pressed I would get everything as I wanted. We all know that things are rarely perfect in SL, but this was as near as I had ever seen. Even when we hit high lag and other people were kicking their equipment, I was amazed that I pushed the button and away it went. This became even more apparent with Yummy included the dance sequencer and Iw as no longer reliant on running a dance HUD alongside. I used it week after week, twice every Sunday for nearly a year. The only hiccup I had with it once in all that time was actually my fault because I didn't reset it after a bad crash. I made spotlights appear, pulled fans out of thin air, turned Marylin into Nicole Kidman! Then in early 2013 Yummy made my jaw drop when we worked on an idea for a group routine. The Artiste made 5 dancers strip in unison and adorn fans during a performance of "Lady Marmalade". We then put together a demonstration package in which everything was automated, from opening the curtains and logging into the tip jar through to making overhead announcements - just one press of a button! It was something that I couldn't have imagined happening when I first started working with her, but I am starting to think that anything is possible. All of this is just the start.
Utility
Just as the ideas that have gone into the Artiste have taken their time, nothing comes without work. I have worked with the Artiste day in day out and I am still learning what it can do. As much as it is powerful it has a lot of complexity, but like a lot of complex learning, it has its foundation in solid basics and common sense. The Silver Edition Artiste, which will be released first, is a hugely important tool in its own right. It is also a great foundation for advanced learning because everything follows the same principles. The key is in learning how best to use what you have and then building upon it in easy steps. There will be support provided for people in manuals and training sessions but anyone who has used a notecard driven dance HUD will have no difficulty learning to use the Artiste. All learning can be frustrating at times but every time you get an idea to work with the HUD it is incredibly empowering. Its not just the result but the fact that you have mastered something new.
Looking forward
I have believed in this project from day one. I have never lost faith in it for one second. The work that Yummy has done is astounding and it has been such a privilege to work with her..and to have her friendship. The real power of the Artiste will be the imaginations of the people who use it and I so look forward to seeing the results. This rejuvenated my experience of SL and opened up a whole world of possibilities and I am sure it will do the same for many others. Roll on 2014, the future is coming :)
Aura Fitzgerald
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And speaking of Aura, here is a recent Artiste HUD production by Aura using the maximum 10 events, 10 adorns, 10 emotes, 10 strips, and 1 sequence. It took her 2 days to perfect this closely timed routine. Click on the link below to view the video clip
The Artiste - A Kind of Magic
Event 1 Spotlight Orb is adorned, Gloves are taken off "Strips off her gloves as she dances and fans them in her hand "Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen!"
Event 2 Prim gloves adorned to hand , prim gloves removed "With a sly grin and a flick of the wrist she turns the gloves into a fan of cards"
Event 3 Cards adorned, hat removed from head "Taking off her hat she waves it to the audience to show it is empty "Watch closely" "
Event 4 Hat adorned to hand, cards removed "As she blows on the cards they vanish into the hat in a poof of stars "Howzat?" "
Event 5 Poofer adorned for effect, poofer removed ""I do hope you are all having a good time!" Plopping the hat back on her head and making her cane appear "
Event 6 hat moved to head, Jacket removed " "Hmm It's a little warm in here!" With a snap of her fingers she makes her jacket vanish .."
Event 7 cane adorned, cane removed ",As she dances she winks at the audience and suddenly the cane becomes a magic wand!"
Event 8 Wand adorned, skirt removed ""Don't you love magic?" With a flourish of the wand her skirt evaporates and she laughs"
Event 9 hat moved to hand, hat removed ""I do hope you have enjoyed my little performance" Tipping her hat again to the audience"
Event 10 Final red effect adorned, shirt and pants removed ""Aaaaaaaand for my last trick..." A wave of the wand and ...."Remember, There can only be one ARTISTE!" :D"
**the actions you see do not necessarily follow the events as are they are listed here due to some retro-timing of adorns
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Artiste Features List
*******************************
BASIC SILVER EDITION*
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1) Auto-Stripping
2) Auto-Adorning
3) Auto-Emoting
4) Auto-Sequencing
5) Pose
6) Dance
7) HUD Minimize
8) Dance Caching
9) Manual: Sequence Start/Stop
10) Final Pose
11) Manual Adorn
12) Intellibooks, classes, one-on-ones, blog
13) Direction-Facing, Absolute
14) Ability to remove just 1 of several layers or attachments on a body part
15) No inventory window required to be open for doing costume stripping
16) Manual Item removal and Group-Item (i.e. shoes) removal
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ADVANCED EDITIONS (GOLD and/or PLATINUM)
**********************************************************
17) Auto-Announcing
18) Auto-FX - Full
19) Auto-Rez
20) Auto-Pose
21) Auto-Follower
22) Free Master Set Rezzer includes manual, with copyable scripts
23) Manual as well as HUD-controllable (using AutoFX) custom SetRezzer with up to 5 set successive auto-crossfades (forward and/or reverse) along with simultaneous set-rez (not available in standard rezzers),: DoubleExposure,Show,Hide,AutoKill,Single SetSelectable, FadeIn, FadeOut,Advance,Retard, ComeHome
24) TestRez - ability to experiment with the rezzables function without notecard configuration.
25) External Device Control thru custom channel
26) HUD-Chaining for when you need additional events (more than 12)
27) SmartChange - Micro-Controlled outfit-change ordering
28) Communicates to DanceDiva - Group Formation HUD
29) Communicates to our custom Stage HUD - isolating stage control to the one logged in performer or group-lead
30) Communicates to our custom Stage Director - screens group controlling via Stage HUD or direct
31) Communicates to our designated lights, custom tip-jar script, custom curtain script
32) Group Adorn - Coordinated outfit additions
33) Controls and plays Sounds from inside Director
34) Can start and stop media
35) Costume Exclusions
36) Costume Anchors
37) Rez-scripts copy/xfer allowing you to create custom rez-objects
38) Includes several free scripted rezzables: Silhoutte Ball, Spotlight, Silly Ball, Long Box, Cylinder, Phone Booth, Changing Screen, Orb Glow
39) Customizable FX-Masked Costume Changing
40) Can avoid most (but not all) notecard configuring by using the HUD menu system..
41) Built-in Avatar Invisibility
42) Special Event Zero and event #11 for things you always do before and after a routine with pre-lead-times and post-delay times
43) Ability to strip without creating RLV folder (but does require RLV enabling)
44) Multiple AutoFXs per event allowed
45) Many functions have configurable lead, hold/on, and delay time offsets
46) Send separate dance sequences to 3 definable dance groups (A,B and both)
47) Use NickName for emotes,
48) Send Emotes to Relay device on special channel (for extending chat beyond 100 meters)
49) Direct Emotes to local chat or IM
50 ) Group Stripping via a negative Adorn
51) Send commands region-wide
52) Auto-Teleport, Auto-Rebake, Auto-Tattoo Layering as part of SmartChange
53) Chooseable auto-animations for start and end of costume-change
54) Auto-Rezzer can, via the rez-instructions embed intelligence into rezzed objects, do the following automatically to a rezzed object, tied to an event: with available offsetting via the Wait.
Rez,
Move,
Slow Turn,
Position,
Drop,
Set Glow,
Opacity,
AutoFadeIn,
AutoFadeOut,
AutoRaise,
AutoLower,
Direction,
Color,
Animate,
ForceSit,
Distance,
Spin,
Wait,
Kill
55) Effects Spin
50) Effects Coloring
51) Selectable FX-Costume Masking time
52) HUD controllable via external Chat
53) HUD is Copy/Mod - save pre-configured with your (initial) show outfit
54) HUD-2-HUD transfer script Included for easily transferring items between 2 HUDs (good for version upgrades)
55) GroupPlay, GroupStop, GroupStrip
56) Controls an advanced version of the Opera Glasses and triggers viewing angles at event times
57) and more...i just cant think of them all at the moment
Christmas / New Years wishes
Hejsa all,
Would you like to share your Christmas /Happy new Year wishes with the other members?
Then send me your text and maybe a picture (Zhaza Zerbino) Or send me a mail on
zhaza-zerbino@hotmail.com
I will publish it in "From Member to Member"
From Member to Member
Happy Holiday to you all ;o))
....¸.•´Lets Dance!
... (
☻/
/▌♥♥
/ \ ♥♥♥
ZZ ;o)
Would you like to share your Christmas /Happy new Year wishes with the other members?
Then send me your text and maybe a picture (Zhaza Zerbino) Or send me a mail on
zhaza-zerbino@hotmail.com
I will publish it in "From Member to Member"
From Member to Member
Happy Holiday to you all ;o))
....¸.•´Lets Dance!
... (
☻/
/▌♥♥
/ \ ♥♥♥
ZZ ;o)
Monday, December 23, 2013
Upcoming dance events -23rd December 2013
mily Sandalwood sent following;
Please find a list of upcoming dance events as informed to the Gorean Dance Contest group. If you would like to have a notice of an upcoming event placed on here, the group is free to join.
You can also go to the "Gorean dance contest" group's google calender on to get an overview of planned events.
Click Here
I beg you please if you consider organising an event go to the calender to check
You can read more about the upcoming Dance Events, when you click on following link;
More about the upcoming Dance Events
Please find a list of upcoming dance events as informed to the Gorean Dance Contest group. If you would like to have a notice of an upcoming event placed on here, the group is free to join.
You can also go to the "Gorean dance contest" group's google calender on to get an overview of planned events.
Click Here
I beg you please if you consider organising an event go to the calender to check
You can read more about the upcoming Dance Events, when you click on following link;
More about the upcoming Dance Events
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Female Show Dancers wanted.
Bruce Wayne (islandboy26) is Looking for female dancers
An event on 27th December 2013 at 11am slt for a 1920s/ great Gatsby theme party...
Are you interested to hear more? Then contact Bruce Wayne (islandboy26)
FRIDAYS BURLESQUE BUSTLE CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA
Chopsy Bode sent us this;
::FRIDAYS BURLESQUE BUSTLE CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA AT THE LGC::
Come into our grotto and help kick of the weekend with us..
Rest your weary joints as you let us whip up a snowstorm... of tassles and pastie glue..
Prepare to be amazed at our spectacular array of sticky sweet treats in store from a rather saucy troupe of gals just bursting at their merry seams to make your jaw drop..
Fully choreographed and unique set designs await your lust for entertainment!
Feel free to join us in the dress up..
Lets get this Eggnog flowing..
Show commences at 3pm ish..
http://ladygardencabaret.blogspot.com/
::FRIDAYS BURLESQUE BUSTLE CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA AT THE LGC::
Come into our grotto and help kick of the weekend with us..
Rest your weary joints as you let us whip up a snowstorm... of tassles and pastie glue..
Prepare to be amazed at our spectacular array of sticky sweet treats in store from a rather saucy troupe of gals just bursting at their merry seams to make your jaw drop..
Fully choreographed and unique set designs await your lust for entertainment!
Feel free to join us in the dress up..
Lets get this Eggnog flowing..
Show commences at 3pm ish..
http://ladygardencabaret.blogspot.com/
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Dance Queens Christmas Gifts Hunt!
Hejsa Everyone,
Many of of like Christmas and many of us likes gifts!!
So I got the idea, to give away a gift!
When decided what gift it should be, I got another idea (I'm filled with ideas...lol)
What if I just ask the members, if they might be interested to give a gift as well?
So here is what I figured out...
Are you interested to give a gift to the DQ Members?
Then read this....!
*If you want to be a "Dance Queens Santa" then write me a message (Zhaza Zerbino)
*I will send you a gift-box, with the info you need!
*You fill the box with your gift and all the info you would like to give (LM, Note, Poster)
*I need a picture of the gift.
*I will put up the pictures and put a number on it, so the members can see, what gift they hunt for!
*I will ask you to hide the gift on one of the floors we have at the Center. (more info about that, when you join to give a gift)
I wish everyone a great Christmas time!!
....¸.•´Lets Dance!!
... (
☻/
/▌♥♥
/ \ ♥♥♥
ZZ ;o)
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Kiikiidoll sent following;
KIKI'S House of Burlesque proudly presents:
★(`'·.¸(`'·.¸ * ¸.·'´)¸.·'´)☆
«´·.¸¸.•ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU•.¸¸.·`»
☆(¸.·'´(¸.·'´ * `'·.¸)`'·.¸).
A HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR!!
★★PERFORMANCES BY THE OOH LA LA DANCERS★★
★★ S H O W T I M E S ★★
SUNDAYS - TIMES VARY FROM 9AM TO 7PM
TO ACCOMMODATE ALL TIME ZONES
TELEPORT TO LORII CAPRONI ISLAND FOR ALL THE INFORMATION
★The sets.
★The songs.
★The dances.
★The Fashions.
★The choreography.
★and ohhhhhh the Sexxxy !!
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
SEX! SEX! SEX!
Now that I've gotten your attention........The Foxy Ladies of the Velvet Vixen are talking all about SEX!!!!! COME GET IT!! YEAH BABY, here is your last chance to be naughty before Christmas! WOOHOO earn another lump of coal as we inspire you to be so naughty it's nice at our sex show. We have sex advice delivered straight from Post Master Babypea....and Professor Lil is sure to teach you a lesson you'll never forget! And ladies.....the sexy master himself, Jess, has prepared a set that is sure to get some panties dropping! We've got a bit of naughty for every taste! Show starts at 5pm slt on Wednesday, December 11! Cum join the naughty list at the Velvet Vixen!
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife//31/99/506
Monday, December 9, 2013
Abranimations advent Calender for day 9
you got til 11:59pm on Dec 9th to get this free couples shag dance at Abranimations. Its free for the day.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Animations/133/95/22
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Animations/133/95/22
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Fusion Dance Crew presents..... Once Upon A Time
Fusion Dance Crew's final dance performance for the 2013 Season: ONCE UPON A TIME will be presented at the lovely Fusion Performing Arts Center on Saturday, December 14 @ 2PM SLT.
Our performance is based on the very popular American TV Series, Once Upon A Time where fairy tale characters are not exactly as they appear in RL fairy tale books and stories:))
Come see the Fairy King as he tries to get female fairies to do their job, giggles; The Wizard who wants to be young again, Bad Red Riding Hood, The Muses & Hercules and those disgruntled 7 Dwarfs all with Fusion Dance Crew's signature style of jaw dropping sets, AWESOME music, costumes, stories and a dash of humor.
Hope to see you there!
SPOT ON CLASS @ DANCE QUEEN INFO CENTER
Saturday, December 15, 2013
2 pm
At the Dance Queen INFO Center
Platform 2
HOW TO MAKE CUSTOM FORMATIONS FOR THE SPOT ON GROUP FORMATIONS SYSTEM
Did you know that you can design your own formations for your Group Formation System? This is very useful when you want to do a a performance and need your group to do something special, like enter through a doorway or move in some way that is not one of the standard formations you have currently.
We'll show you step-by-step the simple process which many of you already know! We look forward to see you!
Spot On Team
2 pm
At the Dance Queen INFO Center
Platform 2
HOW TO MAKE CUSTOM FORMATIONS FOR THE SPOT ON GROUP FORMATIONS SYSTEM
Did you know that you can design your own formations for your Group Formation System? This is very useful when you want to do a a performance and need your group to do something special, like enter through a doorway or move in some way that is not one of the standard formations you have currently.
We'll show you step-by-step the simple process which many of you already know! We look forward to see you!
Spot On Team
Saturday, December 7, 2013
The Dance Queens Christmas Talent Show!
Hejsa Happy Dancers ;o)
Many of us love the Christmas time and so do we from Dance Queens.
So, time to have a big Christmas show!!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read more... DQ Christmas Talent Show
Knuzzer ZZ ;o))
Many of us love the Christmas time and so do we from Dance Queens.
So, time to have a big Christmas show!!
Read more... DQ Christmas Talent Show
Knuzzer ZZ ;o))
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Rio Risquettes present LOCKED AND LOADED
Please join some of SL's most innovative dancers as they present an all new show full of explosions and warfare! No one is safe after this full-frontal assault! These ladies have pulled out the heavy artillery for a show you don't want to miss! Curtain opens at 8pm slt, Thursday, December 5! Can't wait to see you there!
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Humanoid Free Dances on Marketplace
Humanoid has 5 free dances on the marketplace. https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/107586
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Gypsy's Burlesque House Presents HOLIDAY DREAMS
Come celebrate the holidays with us here at Gypsy's Burlesque House. We'll have the eggnog spiked and the Burlesque Dolls spiced. We have a special show planned for you in hopes of adding a touch of holiday cheer to your season. Show times are Dec 4th & 18th at 8pm slt. We hope to see you under the mistletoe.
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